When I Woke Up, Volume 1: A Dreamlike Meeting
by mycatlovesme
Summary: I always seem to wake up in strange places, but Eggman's Lab? This one takes the cake. A new adventure awaits, with an epic list of new friends I know better than they expect! Expect high-paced action and cameos of or allusions to anything I have ever watched or read. All OCs are based on me and my friends. :3 Originally written during breaks while working at an amusement park!
1. Dreaming about a Riddle

When I woke up, I was in this weird little closet in what sounded like some sort of office building, or something... maybe a half-operational factory? I poked my head out of the closet and saw a long, empty hallway - a kind of sci-fi hall, rounded, with webbed supports that provided excellent cover for anything smaller than a sports car. The main part of the hallway was huge, and as I stood goggling at it, two large robots came speeding down the walkway, off on some mysterious errand. A tug at my pants startled me, but it was only the roomba-type bot - whose closet I had apparently been occupying - and all he wanted was to vacuum my shoes and pant legs. That finished, he returned to his closet and left me standing in the hallway, mystified.

I took a moment to think about things, occupying my hands by cleaning my glasses on my T-shirt, a familiar, comforting gesture. Those robots had seemed familiar, but I couldn't place them... perhaps it wasn't so much that I had seen those particular models before, but others designed by their maker? I couldn't remember such a time. They did seem like mecha from some distantly remembered children's anime that I'd only seen in posters from otaku's bedrooms, but was that enough of a similarity? I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen them before - recently - and that I didn't want to meet their creator - not without preparation and allies. I put my glasses back on and started walking.

I chose my direction in this manner - it seemed to me that the bots had been accelerating as they passed, so I assumed they must have been coming from a location much closer than their destination.

The roombots I assumed I could "trust". Their simple programming had not given me reason to fear, but I wasn't going to stick around one of them long enough to find out for certain. The "carrier" type bot's greatest threat was their speed - they would crush me flat if I was careless. But also, they appeared "smarter" - I would be willing to bet they would raise some kind of alarm if they saw me.

So I walked carefully down the hall, and every time I heard the slightest noise I would dart behind cover - there was no shortage of that, at least. The bots appeared, slower and slower each time - I was getting close.

But - ahead of me, the hallway branched. From the right came the large robots, spaced so closely I could barely slip from one support to the next. The left was an empty hallway, turning after only three supports, and I could hear that specific kind of echo that signified a large metal wall - and as my courage failed me, I chose to take that path instead.

As I had anticipated, the corridor ended in a double door made of steel, with a keypad and the prompt, 'Enter PIN'.

Personal identification numbers are usually four digits. I tried '1234'. The door opened. Somehow, it didn't surprise me at all.

I was looking at a cell chamber - kind of old-fashioned, really, with the iron bars and steel beds - much too old-fashioned to mesh with the mechas and webbed supports of the previous area. All along the wall on my right were five cells separated by the same iron bars keeping the occupants from occupying the main room. The wall to my left was lined with five chairs facing the doors of the cells, each with a key hanging on the wall above them. At the end of the long and narrowish room was a door, which beckoned me, until I saw a familiar face in one of the cells.

Big black eyes, shaggy black hair and bare feet - the 20-something Japanese man was leaning on the bars, chewing on his thumbnail. My appearance surprised him, and he looked at me without a word.

Once I recognized him, I knew I couldn't leave him kept in a cage. Trying to control my expression, I turned away, looking at the keys. One key on each string, one string hanging on the wall above each chair, and one chair for each door. Seemed simple enough. The keys were out of reach though, I would have to stand on the chair to get them - but each chair had a ribbon of wire trailing from the left foot, through a maze I could see through the plexiglass under my feet, and at the other end of the maze, emerged, protected by steel pipes, and climbed to the top of each cell door.

"What do the wires do?" I asked. The black-eyed guy shook his head.

"We have no way of knowing." His accent had some British tones, but something else in it as well. Mysterious and more than a little alluring. I bit my lip and kept my gaze fixed on the floor maze.

Another guy sat crouched by the side of a prone figure, but I was too preoccupied to pay them much attention. The young man stood up and came to the side of the detective. I perceived him to be a prep - rich kid in a fancy school uniform. Some rich college or another.

"We're not sure whether it destroys the door, unlocks the door, or sets off an alarm." Mr. Money said. "The riddle he gave us is, 'Good posture isn't always good for you.'"

I sighed. "I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate riddles." I looked at the maze of wiring again - with another sigh. "Have you guys figured this out yet?"

They shook their heads. Black-eyes chewed his thumbnail. "I've only gotten about halfway through."

"I wonder if I could -" The college kid put his hand on the cell door, his body suddenly prepared to spring into some kind of powerful strike, but, biting his cheek with a sulky look, he relaxed back into his seemingly privileged-boy persona. "Solid steel... I'd only hurt myself."

In that motion I recognized him. "You- you're Richard Grayson, aren't you. That kid Mr. Bruce Wayne took under his... wing?"

His eyes narrowed briefly. "You must have seen me in the papers..."

I nodded. "Of course, who hasn't. May I call you Ricky?" At his nod, I continued. "You can call me Windy. And who's - ah!" I recognized the prone figure at last. "That's my friend - is she hurt?" I stepped toward the cell in my dismay, only a step.

Ricky looked back at her. "She's taken quite a bump on the head. She'll probably wake up soon, though."

I nodded, suddenly recalling my purpose. With three friends inside the cell, now I would open the door or die trying. "Good, good..." I stared at the maze, tracing the path of the wire from the door. Being freely able to move about the room gave me an advantage the boys didn't have, and soon I had solved it. Catching the heel of my shoe with my other foot, I left the shoe in front of the chair that I had decided belonged to the door of my friends' cell. Then I began to solve the puzzle again.

"You solved it." Said the black-eyed boy. He was no longer chewing his thumbnail, but still watching me intently.

"Maybe," I said, not looking up. "With something of this complexity, I require multiple solutions to reach a commonality..." I looked up at him with a start, putting my toe on my spot to keep from losing it. "What are you called, by the way?"

He shrugged. "Call me whatever you want."

I frowned at him. "Then... how about I name you after a legendary hero who tragically died after saving the lives of people who didn't know he was doing it. Perfect. Severus it is."

"Severus?" Now it was his turn to frown. The name confused him - I saw a slight spark in his eye. "I don't like that name. It just sounds evil."

I turned back to the maze. "Okay. How about Leo... or Loki... or... London? I like Loki, but I don't think it suits you. What do you think?"

There was silence for a moment, and I could feel his sharp eyes considering me. I would have bet my life savings that he had started to chew his thumbnail again. "London's fine."

"Alright. London you have been christened... by me. Congrats." Miraculously, I reached the chair with my shoe again. I left my other shoe beside it, and in sock feet I padded over to the chair next to the one I wanted, and examined it.

There were pressure pads under the feet of the chair, which were loosely bolted to the floor - any pressure on the chair would trigger them. But, it didn't look like the chair itself was booby-trapped. So, I spun and plopped myself on the chair.

The boys' eyebrows jumped. A device over the door of the cell two to their right triggered, and released a cascade of acid which dissolved the lock of the cell. Then the solution hardened again, creating a solid block of metal where the lock had been a moment before.

"So." I said. "Now we know what the chairs are for." I crossed my arms and tilted my head back against the wall, crossing my socked ankles and slouching far down into the uncomfortable chair.

I stared blankly at the key hanging well over the chair that my shoes were guarding. How in the world would I retrieve it?


	2. Dreaming about a Heart Attack

Thanks for reading my little story!

In the last chapter, I had been exploring a strange place when I found Ricky Grayson, my old friend Anica, and someone I decided to call London, all caught up in a trap. The only way them out is to get the key! But how?

* * *

I stared intently at the key, hanging from a string over the booby-trapped chair.

Suddenly, the door at the end of the room slid open. A patrolling gangster seemed just as surprised to see me as I him, but even as I lunged to try to keep him quiet, he called out, and even as my punch connected with his glass chin, I began to hear very large footsteps fill the hall beyond the door. I shoved the guard out into the hall and pressed a button - any button - until the doors closed, but as I looked around, I realized that unless I ran back out the way I had come, I was trapped.

"The key!" Ricky yelled.

London merely moved away from the cell door, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I turned to look at the key, and a half-plan formed, but before I could even give it a thought the door burst open - and flew halfway across the room. Giants apparently don't do well with tiny buttons.

A movement in the air warned me, and I hit the floor as his hand swept the air above me. I jumped up - all those burpees did me some good after all! - and spun to see my opponent.

Well, a glance was all that was required to inform me that I had no fucking chance.

The giant was huge. His huge shoulders were barely squeezing through the door and he was almost on his hands and knees to fit into the tiny room. That hand would wrap around me from shoulder to knee, and I didn't want to think about how it would squish me.

But he was so cramped in this narrow room that I might be able to dodge him... except for the gangster I had punched, and two others who were brandishing some kind of stun baton. I backed off.

"Well, shit." I said, tripping over one of the wrong chairs. As luck would have it, it was connected to the farthest door, and sent metal-melting acid spraying down on the arm of the monster. Just what I needed. I fought my way to my feet, but his huge hand slapped me up against the wall, lifting me off the ground. Painfully he dragged me sideways toward him, making me acutely aware of the concrete bricks and the fact that I couldn't breathe. But - I barely had to reach out to take the desired key, and stringing it around my wrist was the easiest thing - the bulk of the giant shielded me entirely from the still-human guards' view.

Suddenly, the giant released me, the weight of his arm pushing me back almost to the next chair. I fell to the ground with a thump and watched as he suddenly clawed at his chest and throat. He began to scream. He fell to his knees and gasped for air, letting out these wrenching screams that I could barely stand. As he collapsed, dying, I slumped over, closing my eyes. The cursing guards would hopefully assume I was unconscious - yes, they did - and forget me? No such luck. The biggest of the three - crossing himself as he stepped over the arm of the giant - lifted me under one arm and carried me over to the door of the cell my friends were in. His buddy opened the door, and - none too gently - Muscles threw me into the cell and slammed the door.

I think I bounced. I tried to roll. Finding myself on my face, I tried to push myself up, and failed. Muscles growled, and I played dead.

The other gangsters were poking the giant. "Just like the last one," Keys said.

His buddy nodded. "We'd better tell the Joker."

They left, and Muscles went with them.

London tapped my back. "Are you badly injured?" He asked. I successfully pushed myself partway up, feeling some sort of movement in my ribcage that nearly made me pass out again. London caught my shoulder and arm and half-pulled me upright.

"Ow! Ow, sorry, that hurts..." I shook my head - gently. "It's... I'll be okay. Hey - didn't you want this?" I had squeezed the key so hard it left an imprint in my palm, but it fell out neatly, swinging out from the string on my wrist. London caught it, and I barely felt his fingers against my wrist before he was at the door taking advantage of the key.

I pushed myself into a more stable position. "Hey, Anica. How's it going?"

She shook her head. "Not bad. Just a typical day, getting caught by Joker and thrown in prison with local celebrities, that's all."

I smiled. "Right. That's all. How's your head?" The boys were investigating the corpse.

"Aw, it hurts." She stood up, shakily. "But I've had worse headaches before."

I stared up at her. "Really?"

She blinked. "How are you? You look a little banged-up."

"Not surprising, considering I got a little banged around." I nodded at the collapsed giant and accepted her help to stand up, sending waves of pain up and down my body - especially my left leg, which refused to support my weight. Forgetting to breathe, I nearly collapsed again, but Anica caught my arm and supported me. "That thing..." I was panting now. "Has huge hands."

"Are you going to be okay?" Anica said. There was real worry in her eyes. I pushed away from her and leaned against the bars on the wall of the cell instead.

"What are you talking about?" I tried to grin. "I've never been better."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're white as a sheet."

"Only because it's cold in here." I replied, looking at the ground. It would be about three steps to the door, then I would have to find a new support to lean on.

Anica shook her head. "You're crazy."

This time the grin was genuine. "Just remind me how to walk, and I won't debate it."

She slipped her arm under mine again. "Is... that thing... dead?"

Her words surprised me. "Anica, it was human, once." I wasn't sure how I knew, but I was certain the statement was a fact.

"Yes, it's dead." Said London, giving me another of his implacable looks. Ricky kicked the creature.

"It must have been one of the Joker's experiments. He is probably still just testing the formula... that's why the brute died."

"H... heart attack," London said, shifting his eyes to the giant. I sighed inadvertently, watching London, but looked away before his eyes could catch mine.

"At least he's dead," I said quickly. "He's probably in less pain that way. I hope. But anyway, we should go before the cleanup crew gets here."

"Which way?" Asked Anica, moving me to the door of the cell. Standing some helped, and I felt a little more capable of moving on my own.

"The way I came is heavily trafficked by robots, and I don't think we could make it through. I know for certain I wouldn't be able to make it through by stealth."

Ricky nodded, a sparkle in his eye. He shoved his hands in his pockets and whistled a tune. "Great. After the guards we go." London, the closest to the panel, stood and moved toward it.

Anica frowned, but didn't say anything. Taking a deep breath, I stepped over the giant's hand. "The code is 1234."

The boys looked at me. "Seriously?" London asked. I nodded. "That's just too easy," He muttered, looking at the panel and chewing his thumbnail again.

"Are you ready for this?" Anica asked me, stepping over the hand.

"Always ready," I told her, smirking at the familiar phrase and adjusting my glasses. "You?"

"Yup. If you see a bow, though..."

"Right." I said.

"A bow?" London is so easily distracted. "Are you an archer?"

"Yup. I prefer longbows, but I can shoot quite well with compound bows too."

I shook my head, smiling. "The code is still 1234," I reminded London.

"Hm? Oh, right. Ricky?"

Richard Grayson was bent over the giant, tying some of the cloth from his shirt into a familiar shape. When he stood, he was holding a workable sling. He shoved it into his pocket. "Just in case," He said, shrugging.

London punched in the code and the doors slid open.


	3. Dreaming about Cows

Okay, major annoyance - I have an image for this chapter. I couldn't figure out how to embed it like you can at ArchiveOfOurOwn. So here's the direct link if you want to see it. This was hand-drawn by me, and is also uploaded to my DeviantArt. .

But that wasn't the biggest annoyance. Somehow all my tags lost their carets, and this file became nearly unreadable. I think I caught it before anyone viewed it, but my apologies to those who may have tried to read it. Also, the html generated by this editor is unnecessarily bloated and nasty. Please use only one definition for paragraph styles!

* * *

It was another hallway like the first I had seen, but it was smaller - human-sized. It regularly branched, but without any sense of direction, we kept going straight. The corridors were so deserted that we soon dropped our guards and walked down the middle of the hall - and I must admit that I was the first to do this, being much too sore to dance and dart about. Our shoes were oddly silent on the rubber flooring, and I kept trying to pop my ears in the silence.

Then I spotted her. She walked into our path as casually as we walked down it, a young woman around our age with long, dark, curly hair and even darker, lash-framed eyes. She wore, for some reason, an adorable cow outfit with a brown-and-white Ayrshire pattern on it. I took a breath. "'Nera!"

She turned in our direction, her face lighting in recognition. "Kala!" She ran to me and grabbed my hands. Now I noticed that she held a map. Sweet.

"Kala?" Anica asked.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm looking for Mr. Cow, of course," she tilted her head with a sweet smile.

I turned to the party. "Everyone, this is Ms. Cow, an old friend of mine."

She turned her sweet smile to the group and apparently won their trust. Then she turned that disarming smile on me. Shit. "Why are you here, Kala?"

"Don't rightly know. Guess I'm looking for your cow with you, seems as good as anything else," I smirked as I shrugged, adjusting my glasses from the left. London approached and poked at the paper Ms. Cow held.

"What's this, a map?" He took it from Ms. Cow without any resistance.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Her face darkened with concern. "Oh, that? Yes, I found it on a desk. Yes, it's a map - but I'm still lost!" She smiled brilliantly again. "Haha, yes, that I am…"

I shook my head, still grinning like a fool. "Same old 'Nera. Oh, that's right, this is London, that's Anica, a friend of mine from camp, and Ricky."

The cow-girl bowed politely. "Nice to meet you."

London murmured something, chewing his thumbnail. Ricky and Anica bowed politely in response.

"Nice to meetcha," Ricky said.

"I've heard of you from Windy," Anica added.

London suddenly spoke. "There's another cell-block straight down this hallway. Maybe your - Mr. Cow? - will be there."

'Nera flashed her brilliant smile again. "That's great! Are you a detective - no, you must be a detective, right?"

London looked a little stunned. I jumped in. "Yeah, this is an odd combo - the acrobat-" I gestured at Ricky, then London. "The detective, the archer," This was Anica. "The storyteller, and me - what am I?"

Anica was already peering down the target hallway, and she didn't even turn to look before replying. "Isn't it obvious? You're the rogue."

"Rogue! Wah! I was hoping for minstrel, at least!"

"Rogue is better for you - because nobody knows what you're going to do next." Anica stood straight up and faced me seriously - and she didn't seem amused.

"Kala the Rogue," Nera said with a huge grin. "It has a nice ring to it." Her laidback personality had always handled my - eccentricities - more smoothly than Anica's artistic and sensitive personality. For a second I met Anica's eyes without a smile, understanding the difficulties I had put her through in the past...

"Ah, yes," Ricky said, pulling my attention. "Kala - or was it Windy?"

"I answer to either," I tried to answer as smoothly as possible. "I started using the name Windy Chrome recently because I thought it sounded cuter than Kala Ibolya." I mimicked Nera's sweet smile.

"Hey, can we go?" London was facing the goal.

I wobbled through a turn and started moving toward him. Painkillers would be nice. Seeing my difficulty, Nera draped my arm over her shoulders. Ricky joined Anica ahead, and London stopped for a moment to stare implacably at me before following them.

"These people," Nera started, somewhat nervously. "How did you meet them?"

"Anica and I went to the same summer camp, then I lived with her in LA for a while."

"Oh, so this is who you stayed with," Nera said. "I'm glad that whole situation worked out."

"We're pretty good friends," I said. "The other two I 'met' today." I winked. Nera grinned, catching my drift.

"London is an unusual name," She answered.

London barely glanced back at us, bare feet gently padding the floor like a predatory cat. "It's a pseudonym," He said. "But I'm not telling you my real name!" I'm sure he was frowning as he said it.

Nera blinked, not caring. "Yes, I'm sure that's fine."

"Speaking of which," I said, "what was your cow's pseudonym? I never got a straight answer from him."

"Mr. Cow."

I blinked. "I see. I should have expected that."

"Ah - Kala - Windy - whatever your name is - what do you make of this?" London shoved the map unexpectedly into my face. I nearly overbalanced. "The room ahead is labeled as 'cell block', but the layout is wrong." I reached up and snatched the map and brought it down to a logical reading level. As he had said, the room had no 'cells', but merely a single large cylindrical holding tank in the center, large enough to be displayed on the map. I wondered who had made the map, and why...

"Unn... Call me Windy." The tank struck me as unusual and I withdrew my arm from Nera, taking a few steps on my own. "Ricky, Anica, did you see this?" I pointed it out to Nera as I called to them. Anica rushed back to me with concern in her eyes, and I realized I must have gone pale again. "Look how big this tank is..."

"Hm," Anica said, a strident note in her voice. "Big enough for a goldfish, right?"

I was aghast. "A ...goldfish? It would pop!"

Nera was confused. "Goldfish pop?"

"Eh. uh. Old argument," I said, waving my hand.

Anica filled in the blanks. "She says it's not good to let a goldfish get too big, but I think it's cruel to keep a fish in a tank that is too small."

London was staring at me again. "Hm. You flush when you get worked up."

This time I blushed, and felt it in my ears. He shook his head. "What do you think about the tank," I said with a certain note in my voice.

Ricky frowned, thinking. "Definitely too big. Maybe for one of those giants?"

I shook my head. "I think... it's too small for that. Although, maybe for an earlier subject...? Why wouldn't they be kept together?"

Nera tilted her head. "Male aggression due to assertion of dominance?" We all looked at her and she flushed. "I mean, it's something I read about in my psychology class..."

"Works for me," I shrugged.

London looked at the door, which I had completely missed. When did we get here? "Well, guess we'll find out. Who wants to try the code?"

Ricky walked confidently over to the panel, grasping his slingshot in one hand. He must have found some ammo for it. "Ready, everyone?"

I was beginning to get excited, and my ribs were hurting less. I grinned and took a couple steps to face the door, crossing my arms in what I hoped was a victorious pose. "Let's see what's ahead."

Nera moved behind me, peeking around my shoulder, but Anica and London didn't move. Anica betrayed some nervousness by grasping one arm with the other. London merely looked at the door.

Ricky punched the code and the doors slid open.

This room was so much more high-tech than the segments of the lab that we'd seen so far. The walls were covered in sensor readout screens and flashing lights, and the floor was made of grating over a large drain. The center tank was made of glass, and well-lit, but I couldn't see what was inside it - because of what seemed like a tornado of sand - and a flash of blue.

I drew in a breath. "Could it possibly be...?" I glanced around, eyes wide, oblivious to the stares of my comrades. There were two other doors to the chamber. I glanced at them both in turn, then moved awkwardly to one of them. "If I'm right..." I tapped the code into the keypad. "That girl should be..." The door slid open, and an out-of-breath, pink hedgehog fell backwards in surprise. An orange, twin-tailed fox flew up behind her. I smiled at them benignly. "Hello, Amy Rose, Tails."

The pink hedgehog jumped to her feet, smoothing out her skirt with one hand and gripping her hammer with the other. "Who the hell are you?" She was still panting from the run.

I turned and gestured to the glass tank. "I believe I have a friend in that tank with yours. Would you mind?"

Her eyes wide, Amy walked past me, taking in the room, the tank, and my surprised friends. Her quick eyes caught the blue flash in the tank at the same time Tails did.

"Sonic!" He cried. "Amy! That's Sonic!" He ran up to the tank and slapped it with both hands.

"Why's he running like that?" Amy asked, running toward the tank. "Sonic!"

"There's not enough sand in there to bury him so - there must be someone else in the tank!" Tails said. "Hurry, let him out!"

"Holding back sand like that? Sounds familiar..." Nera said to me.

"Sounds like something I read in a comic book." I smiled.

"That's impossible. The Author wouldn't violate copyright that blatantly -" Anica looked at me askance. "Would you?"

I shrugged, open palms to the sky, smirking. "I'm the rogue, remember?"

London had crossed to Amy's side. "Can you really smash it?" He seemed to be very interested in the small pink hedgehog.

She gripped her hammer tighter, attention focused on the blue blur. "Of course I can! Just wait and see!"

Tails lifted off the floor and retreated to where Nera and I stood, then called out to London. "You'd better stand back, mister! Sand'll be flying everywhere when she breaks that glass!"

London looked up and finally wandered over to Tails, Nera and me. Amy readied her hammer. "Ready or not, here we go!" She cried, swinging the hammer.

Surprised, I flinched, and covered my ears just as sand hit me in a wave. When I opened my eyes, a very dizzy blue hedgehog lost his balance and fell down into a pile of sand with a plop. Half-buried next to Sonic, a young man tried to wipe the sand from his face - his hands were cuffed to the bottom of the tank. He squinted at us, then pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on.

Nera was already running towards him with a cry. "NEERRROOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She jumped onto the tank and threw her arms around him. Amy popped up from under the sand and shook her head vigorously. "Jeez, you're noisy. Are you alright, Sonic?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. How 'bout you, buddy?" Sonic leaned back, looking at Nera and her Mr. Cow. She was wiping tears from her eyes and he had a ridiculous grin on his face. "Oh, truly I am fine. Thank you very much. Yes, you both have saved my life!"

Ricky jumped up onto the base of the tank and fiddled with the handcuffs. They dropped away in a moment.

I watched the sand slide down through the grates in the floor and wind down the drain. "Seems they were expecting this to happen. Too late to prevent their noticing, I suppose."

"Of course," Sonic said. "I was gonna get out eventually. It's me we're talking about, after all."

Tails flew up to the platform, staring at something hanging above them. "Sonic, isn't that..."

"Oh, yeah, the Master Emerald." Sonic scratched his head. "Don't know why it's here. It's been giving me a hell of a headache honestly. Knuckles must really be slipping to let it out of his sight." He prepared himself. "Clear the platform, I'm going to knock it down."

Everyone scrambled. Amy gave Sonic the thumbs up a moment later. "All clear! Sonic, do your best!"

"Here I go!" He was a blur before I even noticed that he had moved. He ran a spiral around the room, climbing the walls and building speed, then suddenly he jumped out, using his famous spinball attack to smash the casing holding the Master Emerald aloft. The Master Emerald twinkled as it fell, then slid on the sand, rolling to a stop only a few feet from where I stood.

I stumbled forward involuntarily, pulled by the shining gem. "Watch out!" Tails cried. "The emerald is supercharged with energy! Don't touch it!"

But it was too late. The ground tipped dangerously beneath me, and I turned to look back at my friends. I was just in time to see Nera reach for me, but the sight faded into black.


	4. Dreaming about a Fall

The view closed over me, and I was falling in lonely darkness. The material I was falling through was denser than air, streaming over my skin and pulling at my clothing almost like an ultra-fine sand, ice-cold and somehow electric. I had to force myself to breathe, the same way I do in a strong wind. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing, focus on centering, focus on anything that would keep me from panicking and losing myself to the dark and cold and aloneness. This is my very definition of Hell, my mind kept repeating. There is no escape.

My back settled against something stable, and I relaxed against it. It was warm. It pulsed with a heartbeat.

The wind-sand was still now - or perhaps I was just still within it - and I had less difficulty breathing. I opened my eyes at last to percieve a red glow emanating from the surface. From my body black tendrils like smoke trailed up, hanging in the wind-sand.

I was cold. Colder than I had ever been before. I struggled to breathe the cold wind-sand still, but I pushed myself away from the red, warm surface to look around.

I was standing on a giant Knuckles the Echidna. I was tiny, the size of his palm, and I stood on his chest just inside the white crescent. I looked up at his face and realized he was not conscious.

I was beginning to shiver hardcore. "Knuckles," I whispered, my voice raspy and soft in the cold. I huffed, and focused my energy. "Knuckles!" There was no response.

I closed my eyes and tried to fill my body with the memory of heat. Shivering always made me lose focus and I needed to stop that. Standing wasn't helping. I knelt down, sitting on my heels, dropped my hands palm up on my thighs, trying to meditate.

This time I called mentally. "Knuckles. You must wake up."

The heartbeat changed - increased in pace. I opened my eyes and looked up at the redhead's face. His eyes had opened and he was looking at me.

"Why are you here?" He asked, without speaking. I stood.

"I..." I don't know where the answer came from, but I knew it was right. "I'm here to retrieve you."

He carefully wrapped his hands around me, shielding me from the cold of the wind-sand. "You are only human. You should not be here. You should not have been able to come."

"I... was needed." Again, where did the answer come from? His hands closed, and my view faded to black again.

"Windy..." I thought I heard Tails' voice.

"Windy!" That was Anica.

"She's coming around," said London. I began to shiver again.

"Here, wrap this around her," Ricky's voice. I was lifted and a rough cloth wrapped around me. I moved, uncomfortable by it.

"I seriously thought she was dead," Sonic said. "Chaos power is dangerous to humans."

"She was dead," Nera said, and I could picture her wide-eyed and tearful face. I tensed, trying to sit up, and immediately I felt someone supporting me. I tried to open my eyes, but the world was too bright. "Her heart was completely stopped for more than a minute."

"Relax," London said softly - it was his shoulder behind mine. "Take your time."

I focused on breathing. Breathing is always the key. If you can take control of your breathing, you can take control of your world. My breathing was unsteady, but painless - my ribs no longer hurt. My body tingled all over, painful only in the return of circulation. I opened my eyes a little, my vision returning, and I saw all of my friends gathered around me. I still shivered.

Knuckles stood with one hand on the Master Emerald, watching us - watching me - unnoticed by his friends and the rest. I locked eyes with him for a second, and Anica traced my vision, jumping to her feet in surprise.

"Who are you?"

London's hand tightened as he tensed, observing the red echidna for the first time. Tails was the first to recover. "Knuckles! When did you get here?"

"I've been here the whole time." Knuckles tapped the emerald. "...Thanks to your friend, I... woke up."

With a deep breath, I suddenly pushed myself up, hoping the wobble in my posture was covered by the motion. "Hey!" London said. "Don't stand up so fast, you'll pass..." I passed my gaze to him, and he stopped, almost retreated. I blinked, and concentrated on relaxing my face, then tried to smile. It must have worked, because he relaxed. "Be careful." He looked away and let his shaggy hair cover his face.

Now that I was standing, I realized... I was so tired. Standing up had gotten the blood truly pumping, and I was no longer shivering, but I could tell I was now running a fever from exhaustion. Small wonder.

"Well, it's great to see you, Knucklehead!" Sonic slapped Knuckles on the shoulder. "Windy's not dead, and Knuckles is here, all's well that ends well, right?"

Nera abruptly threw her arms around me, sobbing now. "YOU WERE DEAD." She cried. "DON'T DO THAT." Anica also came close, and put her hand on my arm - remarkably intimate, for the touch-averse girl.

I hugged Nera tightly back, and looked at Anica's eyes. "Look, I'm not dead now. And don't worry," I grinned. "I have five lives left."

"You said that last time," Nera buried her face in my shoulder, and I just held her. Had I really said that before? I couldn't remember. I guess that meant I only had four left after all.

"Where is this place?" Knuckles asked.

"Knuckles, you'll never believe what that stupid Eggman has gotten up to this time!"

"I'll believe almost anything when it comes to that jerk." He responded, his serious face, getting darker. "He certainly got me good, this time."

"He's teamed up with somebody," Amy yelled, unable to contain it. "And that guy's..." She shook her head.

"Totally nutso." Tails remarked.

"His name is 'Joker', or something like that," said Sonic, arms crossed, leaning against the emerald. "He must be a local, although he's pretty strange-looking even for a human. I came on over here on one of Eggman's bots, but this place is huge and I haven't found anything useful."

"You mean you got into a trap and I had to save you," Amy smirked.

Anica withdrew her hand from me and stood against the wall, grabbing her elbows. I glanced back at her, and she finally spoke, staring at the floor. "He wants to destroy Gotham. Joker's having Eggman build a giant rocket that will explode and splash highly corrosive acid all over Gotham City."

"Acid?" Ricky let out a hissing breath. "Whose idea was that, I wonder."

"The area of impact should be three - no, four kilometers in diameter. Anything organic will be completely dissolved, and anything non-organic will be greatly eroded. An increased area of eight or ten kilometers will be exposed to an aerated form of the neurotoxic acid, and low-dose exposure to the substance may cause undesired side effects." This was London, who still crouched by me, looking up to meet my gaze. Nera finally let go, her tears mostly subsided. I transferred her to her boyfriend, someone more equipped to deal with feminine tears. I sat down again, half-cross-legged, and idly wondered if anyone had food.

"That acid is no joke. If it's the same stuff me and Amy saw..." Tails was hovering in distress.

"The trouble is," Ricky said, pacing. "The time of launch is in only a couple of hours. Your friend Eggman must be one heck of an efficient engineer."

Tails shrugged. "Anyone can do it, really. It just takes a little detailed knowledge of aeronautics, chemistry, robotics -"

Sonic cut him off. "It's the robots. Eggman has hundreds of 'em."

London leaned close to me in his odd manner, barely touching the ground. "That fox builds rockets too, right?"

I nodded gently, afraid that motion would startle him like a butterfly. "He can, but he prefers jet planes."

I sensed him smile. "Of course."

Amy was looking at the emerald, thinking hard. "Hey... Knuckles? If the Master Emerald is here, what about Angel Island?"

Knuckles' only expressions today seemed to be grim and grimmer. "The island does store up enough energy to keep from a catastrophic fall, but it will descend." He stopped.

"How long?" Ricky asked, unsure of the context.

Knuckles shook his head.

Tails landed with a thump, his fluffy tails spreading out as his face lit up. "What are we standing around for? I brought the Tsunami when Amy and I came over!" Amy brightened as well, grinning and putting her hands on her hips.

Knuckles stared for a second, then grinned. He picked up the emerald in one easy motion, balancing it on one hand. "Lead the way. Sooner the Master Emerald is put back, better I'll feel."

Tails looked at Sonic, who gave a thumbs up and a big grin. "When you drop him off, come on back - we'll probably need your firepower."

"Do you have your comwatch, Sonic?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded, pulling it out of his quills and displaying it. "Great, keep it turned on." Amy had already started walking, and Knuckles walked past the hedgehog and fox. Tails lifted off the ground and started floating away. "We'll keep in touch!" He promised.

I looked around. "Large group may be a bit cumbersome," I muttered. "Hey, Tails, what if Nera and Nero went with you? Do you have seating?" The pair just stared at me. "Never know when you'll get another chance," I grinned.

"Huh? Yeah, that should be fine. Can either of you operate a turret?"

"If it's like the video game," Nero said, and looked at Nera. "We both can!" He smiled.

"Great! I'd love your help then. Eggman's got swarms of 'bots all over."

"Great, fine, we're wasting time, let's go!" Knuckles called from down the hall.

"This way, guys!" Amy called.

Sonic kicked his shoes against the flooring. "Well, I'm off too. Work best alone and all that. See ya!" He was gone. Amy squeaked.

"SONIC! You made my skirt flip up on purpose, you jerk!"

I creakily got to my feet, stiff from the cold. "See ya guys later!" I called. "Have fun!" I waved and smiled, without awareness of the future.

I think Nera sensed it, or maybe she was still worked up from the close call I'd had with the emerald, because she ran back and tackle-hugged me - unusual for her. "Be careful, okay? You have a habit of too many close calls." She shook me a little, and I smiled.

"Everything will be okay," I said. "I promise."

She let go then, and with one last glance, dashed off after her companions.

I looked around. Ricky, Anica, London and I were the only ones left.

"So!" Anica looked excited. "What's the plan? How do we stop the Joker and this Eggman guy?"

"If we rush into things, we'll just wind up caught again," London warned, looking down the hallway Sonic had taken. He bit his thumbnail. "It might be worth our time to actually make a plan."

I wondered, for the first time since meeting him, how London had gotten himself caught up in all this.

"We don't know anything, though." Ricky said. "We only overheard what the plans were, not where the controls were."

"I am not sure... but maybe we could cover more ground if we split up?" I contributed. "Maybe if you boys go in one direction, and Anica and I go in the other - athleticism would be more equal that way."

The guys looked at each other, and I suddenly realized that they didn't really get along. I wondered why.

"They'd be fine," Anica said. "But what would we do, sneak around and hope to not get caught?"

I nodded. "Something like that."

"We've all already been caught at some point." London pointed out, then glanced at me with a twitch in his eyebrow. I kept my face blank. "I guess, most of us have been caught already. We'll all be sneaking, I think." Now it was Anica and Ricky's turn to look at me. I kept my face blank.

"Still got the map, Anica?" I asked.

She unfolded it on the floor. "Where do you think the rocket will be?"

We all gathered around the map and stared at it.

"The Joker's pretty devious, so I don't think it's the largest building," said Ricky.

"Joker notwithstanding, Eggman's pretty straightforward, so that's where Sonic will go anyway. We don't have to worry about that building." I said. "Although even if Sonic destroys the big rocket, there might be others. The control room is more important. We need to focus on that."

"A real launch building would have a control room attached, so perhaps this is it?" London pointed.

Ricky, Anica, and I looked carefully.

"Yeah, that's probably it." Ricky said.

"Looks like we can access it from this point, this point, and this point." I said.

"That point is no good," Anica said. "It's a direct hallway from this facility to that facility and doesn't connect here like it looks."

"Looks like this point is the only access to that facility then," Ricky motioned. "No point splitting up until then."

"Great. Did anyone set a watch to launch time?" London asked, not pleased. Both Anica and Ricky nodded. "Can I sync?"

"Exactly one hour and... 37 minutes from now." Ricky answered.

I looked at my watch, wondering if it was set correctly. "What's the local time?"

"Gotham time is 15:13. The rocket will launch at exactly 17:00 and arrive over Gotham roughly 20 minutes later." I set my watch appropriately.

"That's not a lot of time to cover that much ground." I said. "We'd best get going."

General agreement. We stood, and Anica folded the map carefully and put it in her pocket. We started down the hallway, and in about 12 minutes reached the point we'd decided to split at.

Ricky paused before the keypad and said what we were all thinking. "This is too easy!"

I shushed him. "Don't jinx it!"

He ignored me, and started typing the passcode into the numerical entry pad.

The doors slid open.


End file.
